EL Study Guide: Talking About It

Welcome to the EL Study Guide on ASCD EDge. Each month, EL provides an online study guide to assist educators with their professional development. Here on EDge, we regularly post excerpts and pose questions from the Study Guide for EDge members to discuss. We hope to hear what you think!

October's EL has the theme "Coaching: the New Leadership Skill." Jim Knight and Michael Fullan, authors of “Coaches as System Leaders,” cite research showing that the countries that most improved their school systems focus their attention on professional learning rather than teacher accountability. They cite this data from the report, “How the World’s Most Improved Systems Keep Getting Better,” which examined indepth how individual states or school districts within 18 countries have reformed their systems:

[C]ountries that had gone from great to excellent focused 78 percent of their interventions on professional learning and only 22 percent on accountability. The researchers concluded that once the capacity of teachers reaches a certain level, peer culture becomes the source of innovation and energy. Thus, peers become change agents (p. 53).

We'd like to hear your thoughts:

Is the peer culture at your school a source of innovation and energy? Are fellow teachers “change agents”?

Did a coach--or some kind of coaching program--help create a culture that inspires collaboration in your school?

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